Just released! My newest CD of transformational chants.

Spiritual traditions have been doing it for thousands of years. Scientists are confirming its power through research. Entire books are written about it.

It has transformed my life… and it could transform yours.

What is it?

Singing your prayers!

Singing and chanting not only produce immediate physical and emotional benefits, they are profoundly spiritual. When we chant, we are literally singing our prayers.

I write and sing chants to create change in my own life. In fact, I’ve just released my third CD of transformational chants – “A Chants to Love” – and am excited to share it with you. Click here to listen to sample clips.

Sound vibrates matter. We are the only musical instrument that is conscious! We can feel the effects sound has on us and use its power to create change in our lives.

Chanting:

• Changes our bodies. The vibration of our voice ripples through us (we are mostly water) and can soothe, heal and uplift us.

• Slows and deepens our breathing – calming and grounding us.

• Elevates neurotransmitters associated with well-being.

When we chant, we go deep quickly. We are more open and connected with Spirit.

Intention shapes destiny. Combine vibration with intention – focusing on words and affirmations that resonate deeply with us – and we have a most transformational practice. This is why humans have been chanting since the dawn of time.

Why I started writing and recording chants

I was introduced to chant years ago in a class on spiritual practices. We chanted before meditating, and the difference was tremendous.

I went far deeper into a meditative state after chanting than I would have after sitting for an hour – and I was a long-term meditator! We were chanting in Sanskrit, which was powerful and beautiful. But I wanted to give my mind something it understood to focus on from the beginning – so I wrote my first chant in English.

Doing this has changed my life forever. This practice of singing my prayers and affirmations supports me like no other I have found.

Start chanting right now!

Take a short affirmative statement, set it to beautiful music and sing it! It’s as simple as that. Do this for a period of minutes, then sit in the feeling tone it creates. Follow with meditation or yoga, if you’d like.

Not ready to create your own chant? Chant along with a CD – before meditation, in the car, after a hard day of work or any time you want to connect with Spirit.

If you don’t have a chant CD, you can download one of my chants and sing along with it right now. Try one of my new chants or an old favorite like “I am remembering,” “There is only one of us,” or “Joy and peace in my heart.”

So give chants a chance! Let me know how it works for you or ask questions below!

don Miguel Ruiz and Melissa Phillippe

All of us want happiness. What we may not realize is that no matter what we’re feeling, happiness is available to us at any given moment!

All we have to do is stop believing ourselves.

We’ve got to stop telling the same story in our head! Here’s my journey in this practice. I hope it serves you on yours.

Putting the Four Agreements to work

After working with don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements and co-author of The Fifth Agreement, for over 10 years and continuing to practice the Toltec path, I am happier than I’ve ever been in my life. I changed my beliefs, and my life changed.

At the beginning of my apprenticeship with don Miguel, he said we only had to agree to three things in order to work with him.

1. Don’t believe anything anyone else ever told us. (“Okay,” I thought. “I bet I can do that.”)
2. Don’t believe anything HE told us. (Now this was a little more challenging! I had just signed up to study with him!)
3. Don’t believe anything you tell yourself. (“Okay,” I thought. “I guess I’ll just go home now.”)

Thank goodness, it turns out that he wanted us to practice not believing our minds, and he knows that practice makes the master.

How do you stop believing yourself?

Here’s one of the first things I found as I tried to do this. I would realize that I was believing my thoughts and then I would tell myself I was sucking at this. My solution? I would practice not believing THAT thought!

There is a practice I love that my ex David and I got into when we were working with don Miguel. At any moment, with any thought or comment, we would simply follow it by saying “or not.” This is a fabulous way to remember that what we say is just what we say. It doesn’t mean anything unless we say so, or believe so.

Here are all five of don Miguel Ruiz’s agreements:

1. Be impeccable with your word. (This includes the word in your head – the way you talk to yourself.)
2. Don’t take anything personally. (Good luck with this one. This is the hardest one for me!)
3. Don’t make assumptions. (Bottom line: don’t assume anything. Ever.)
4. Always do your best. (Have compassion for yourself on this one. In challenging times, we need give ourselves a break. Be nice to you.)
5. Be skeptical, but learn to listen. (With practice, you can learn to hear what people really mean when they speak. And you can learn to hear the truth from your own mind.)

Here’s your happiness homework.

Any of these agreements will lead you straight to happiness! Truly! Take one a day and try it on. Do your best with that one agreement for that day. Leave comments below and tell us how you’re doing!

(Life is going to go by anyway – so we might as well see how well we can master the happiness available in it!)

I am teaching Five Agreements workshops in August and September so check out my calendar.

Photo: Barbara Stafford

Count your blessings. There is magic in it!

We can’t focus on what’s good about our lives and feel bad. We just can’t. Not if we’re really appreciating what’s good.

Here’s the magic of gratitude. Whatever we vibrate, the Universe responds to. So not only do we feel better in the moment, we are also creating a happier future, with more things to be grateful for in it! Our feelings in this very moment are the most powerful tool for creating our tomorrow.

Creating a daily gratitude practice is one of the best things you can do for yourself. I believe so strongly in it, I want to share some ideas to get you started (or restarted).

Gratitude practice takes only minutes a day

Feeling gratitude doesn’t require expensive equipment. You don’t need to read tons of books about it. Or sit on a mountain top at the feet of a guru. And it doesn’t require hours of sweat, concentration and effort.

Quite the contrary.

Only a few minutes a day devoted to a simple practice can get you powerful results. And, once you get into it (which doesn’t take long), it feels really good!

What’s the best gratitude practice? The one that works for you. Experiment until you find what that is. Here are some possibilities:

• Write down 10 things you’re grateful for every night before you go to sleep. Really let yourself feel gratitude, appreciation and positive emotion.
• Find a gratitude partner. Make a daily date to share 10 things you are grateful for with each other. A 5-minute phone call or email is all it takes!
• Start your day by writing out 10 things you’re grateful for. Or say them to yourself in the mirror. You’ll start vibrating a nicer day for yourself!
• Sing and dance your gratitude! Sing to your pet or spouse (or yourself in the mirror) about how grateful you are that they are there. The sillier the better!
• Do your practice at the same time every day. Whether you’re at home, in  line at the store or driving in traffic, speak your appreciation, silently or out loud.

“But what if I don’t feel grateful?”

I don’t always feel gratitude when I start my practice. Sometimes I feel pouty or cranky or stuck in victim mode. Other times I literally cannot think of anything I am grateful for. With my awesome life, this is quite something!

In those times, I start by saying or writing, “I am grateful for….,” and then wait to see what comes. Something always does!

Sometimes all I can be grateful for in the beginning is that I’ve made it through a difficult day! But once I start, there’s always more. There are always at least 10 things I can be thankful for. And poof – like magic, really – I FEEL grateful.

The benefits are cumulative

One of the wonderful things I’ve found as I’ve had a daily gratitude practice is that, more and more, I find myself looking for what I can be grateful for during the day. I’ve developed the habit of being grateful!

The more we practice gratitude, the more grateful we get. And our lives change in wonderful ways as a result.

What my gratitude practice is like today

When I first got clean and sober 21 years ago (today is my 21st Sobriety Birthday!), my sponsor had me write down 10 things I was grateful for every night before I went to sleep. She wanted me to find different things every day.

I continued that practice for many years. 18 months ago, I started it again in a new and beautiful way. Every night, at about 9:15 p.m., my sweetheart and I tell each other at least 10 things we’re grateful for.

This is a sweet time to celebrate each other’s days and connect. But it’s much more than that. It’s a powerful way to turn our attention to what’s good in life. It’s a practice we are committed to and do, without fail, every night.

What’s your gratitude practice? (Or what’s stopping you from having one?) Please share your wisdom and questions below! Blessings!

Here is another excerpt from my Ukraine journey a few months ago. It may be the last one, we’ll see. This one is from much later in the journey – when we were already at the Scienc of Mind Convention and the participants were about to arrive:

Tonight we did a ritual.Peter and Ira and I were in a group together and our word (to hold and be with all week) was freedom. We walked the labyrinth with that word in mind…a beautiful, amazing labyrinth of stones painted bright (florescent!) green – then with glow lights out there, it was amazing – right by the sea too. Quite something. So we all walked it tonight.

Right away I got off the little path, took a wrong step and poof – lost my way.  I was told and guided back on by the guy who made the labarynth (I thought this was particularly entertaining – you know – as an external manifestation or symbol of getting off the path in life – guided back on by “the guy who made it”– as in Spirit). Anyway, I got back on track and stayed on, even helping the woman in front of me a couple of times… That also seemed quite symbolic.

I became more aware of the moment to moment choice available to me. Freedom is an ongoing choice… Not just a moment where I get free and then stay there cuz I “made it!”

Miguel did tell me point blank that I am already free. And I do know this. I also understand it and  know that I have the ability to be free – and that it is only a matter of degrees of freedom – levels of expression as I maintain levels of intention.

Calling this quality in for the week ahead, with people coming tomorrow and knowing that I can infuse this space with my intention for their experience of increased freedom, was all a beautiful thing. This awareness thing – so rich with layers and loveliness!

I had hoped that I was going to be able to update my blog and stay more connected while I was traveling this past couple of months. I was in Santa Barbara, then after 4 days went off to Hawaii to pack up my things from what has been my home there. I was back in No. CA for about 8 days and then off to Ukraine, home 5 and to Cape Cod for a week. WHEW!

I have been asekd so here it is:

Ukraine was absolutely fabulous. It was inspiring and mind-opening, as travel to foreign countries seems to always be for me… and a big part of this was simply appreciating where I live, so grateful for my friends and family and life here in northern CA. I met beautiful, sweet, amazingly open-hearted and loving people in Ukraine. It was so fabulous, both the time with the other Americankis I was with, but also with the Ukrainians I met.

I’ll get to posting some video – SO fun to sing my song ‘Joy and Peace’ in Russian, and awesome to hear any of them sung in two languages at one time. Such a heart-opening sweet time.

If you were one of the generous people who helped to support my music being there, through donations to TEMENOS, thank you so much! And everyone else,  thank you just for reading this blog.

I am so very grateful to be back in Northern CA. I am now moving to another part of town, but still in the same town I have grown to love so much. I am still very grateful to be in school as well. Right now I am grateful to be alive and living in California near so many people I love so dearly.

May we all remember what we have – for we all have so much!

Love and Blessings always.

That quiet, gentle, tender, squishy feeling. Soft and surrendered. Cracked open.

Such a beautiful feeling. Deep and powerful, yet soft and so very, very sweet. I find myself crying at just about anything tender.

And sometimes I get a little scared about going back out into the “regular world.” It seems like the rest of the world doesn’t have the same sensitivity going on at all. And it can feel quite frightening.

And yet, I consistently find that when I remain open, as much as possible, and practice releasing fear over and over, all those regular people respond by softening right back at me! Maybe we’re all just waiting to be met and seen as what we really are beneath the hardened outside persona: cracked open.

I am just back from a week in Hawaii. A week of beautiful, exquisite, excruciating and fabulous completion with what has been my home there with my beloved and soon-to-be-ex-husband, my sweetheart of fourteen years. Fourteen awesome years. Directly from there, literally the next morning, to WomanSpirit for four days of drumming and singing, teaching, and opening with a gathering of amazing women.

And so I re-enter again. I do this as I begin to prepare to head to the Ukraine in just over a week, with a soft and powerful intention to remain fearless, opened and soft. May I remain, today and always, cracked open.

More change. What’s with that anyway?

Cruising along, thinking life is amazing, which of course it is. And WHAM!

There’s a line from ‘Kicking & Screaming (Down the Path of Transformation)’: “I get to thinking I can handle any old change. Then something new shows up. My life is rearranged, and suddenly I’m struggling and feeling so strange as I go kicking and screaming down the path of transformation.”

Whether it’s a new relationship, going back to school, or just a brand new consciousness, Life seems to continually cycle through the blasting of the old and the creating of new structures (as Miguel used to call them). Miguel was a master at blowing up structures. During my studies with him, right about the time we’d think we had his philosophy figured out, he’d completely change it. Perfect teacher! Just keeping us in surrender.

Life does that too, it seems. Life. Perfect teacher.

This message can be quite reassuring when you’re lost. First of all, you know you just took a turn IT didn’t have in mind for you to take! But there are times when it’s actually better to go another way than it thinks. In those times, it can be quite entertaining regardless.

This is my new favorite sayings for life. As I get to thinking I have some direction or goals I am heading toward, and then the Universe comes along and POOF, off I go down some completely unplanned and maybe even unpaved path! You know the moments I am talking about, right?

You think you’re going to do x, y and z in the next few hours, or weeks, or years, and then suddenly that is NOT what is happening ANY more!

There is often a time lag for me, the time during which I am updating my internal program. I guess you could say that I am moving through the phases of grief as I let go of the dream of what was to be.

In these moments (or months or years, as the case may be) I now have a new phrase: “Recalculating Route.” If I remember to say it with just enough of that GPS robotic sound, it can make me smile, even in the midst of resisting the change.

It reminds me that all that is really is happening is an adjustment. Soon I will have a new route I THINK I am headed on. Then I can feel secure again – until the next time I might need to be “recalculating route.”

He said there’s a guy at meetings he hears all the time say, “I am not even the littlest bit surprised when I hear another person has gone out and used and died. What I am amazed about is that you are here, in this room. Any of you!”

When I responded that, yes, indeed, the statistics certainly are against us. He said the greatest thing:
“Well – it is un-natural for an addict NOT to use!”

What a great (and true) statement.

It got me to thinking: as I approach 19 years clean in only 10 days now – about what else I do that is seemingly impossible. For instance, maybe it’s also quite un-natural for a mind to be manageable or to not think. To rest. And yet, we can do it.

And sometimes it is those un-natural things, then, that lead me to my greatest joys and freedoms. hmmm

Regardless, we do the un-natural and the amazing every day! We really are quite amazing!

Enjoy your possibilities today – for they are truly infinite!

I have been to Hawaii, to both the Big Island and to Lanai and also to Mexico (to be there with my beloveds, David [husband] and Miguel [Ruiz]). Awesome blessing of a journey – all of it!

I have been reading a friend’s blog now and then, and THEY just have the littlest things in it! So I am doing that now…letting myself off the hook if I don’t have some grand inspirational message.

I have had a whole new level of experience of living IN the light AS the light of late though. But it is so challenging to write about it.

It seems to be tweaking my whole “create my own reality” thing. Cuz, in THAT awareness, what’s there to create? Everything’s done and perfect. So it has been an interesting dance.

Especially given that I am writing my new show (see August 2 blurbs all over this site) and am so very excited about that. And yet it is all true – all is perfect and all is well – and I am still creating new things…

And in the midst – it is also true – time flies!
☺